#which is over-the-top cartoonish-ness that’s full of PERSONALITY and excess and conviction | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

itspileofgoodthings · 1 year ago

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it’s the way Ryan Gosling plays Ken’s feelings for Barbie for me. because the feelings are unreal and fake in the way of a doll but they’re also intensely real in the way of his actual personality/who he actually is.

#it’s the way he looks at her sometimes when she isn’t looking at him #and it’s just full of intense longing and vulnerability #so it’s that combination that I love SO much #which is over-the-top cartoonish-ness that’s full of PERSONALITY and excess and conviction #and then this core of -well I already said it but INTENSE vulnerability #it’s Michael Scott in love with Holly. It’s Schmidt in love with Cece #and the way Ryan plays it is even more so because he’s a doll and of course in a real way his love for her is not a real thing #BUT IN AN EVEN REALER WAY——#To paraphrase Michael Scott (!!!!!)#it’s the realest thing anyone in Barbieland has ever known (to paraphrase Taylor)!#like he’s the only one trying to do anything real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#and so for me my Barbie takes are all secondhand #because the story they’re telling has some narrative cracks and weaknesses in it #but also I kind of don’t care because they’re not focusing on the story that is the most interesting to me personally #which is this hilarious icon of a cartoon man who is—somewhere in the depths of his little plastic Ken heart—really in love #and I know it seems like I’m just repeating and twisting what the movie DOES say. that he’s in love but it’s fake and he has to get over it #to be his own person #but that’s only the one layer for me!!!!!!#and it’s a true one. I actually love his existential crisis and the moment where he’s forced to be his own person (doll)#and that’s the best thing Barbie could do for him in that moment #but it only addresses part of the situation —the part of his feelings that are fake. it doesn’t actually see or do anything #with the real love that’s also somehow by the magic of personality there #And it pretends it isn’t. BUT IT IS ALSKKSKSJEJJE #like I’m SORRY but he is just an absolute magnet for her and he’s so deeply responsive to her presence underneath all of the exaggeration #it’s in his eyes it’s in his voice!!!!! like. Sorry I know love when I see it akskksksksksjsj #and yeah that love is very decidedly not in her character and at this stage that made sense for it not to be #because of her journey to humanity etc. but I wanted them to do something with that real love in Ken and they don’t even see it #which is OKAY because tbh I’m mostly just delighted that it’s THERE #but yeah. That’s the most interesting part of the movie to me #how could it not be

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